A new and exciting step is being taken by Macquarie Anglican on July 25. After much discussion and prayer we have decided to change some of our Sunday meeting times and locations. This is a fresh start, an opportunity for building communities that are committed to Connecting, Building and Releasing people to serve Jesus. These are times not to miss-come and join us from the very start!

From July 25

8.00 am -100 Balaclava Rd, Eastwood

9.30 am -114 Lovell Rd, Eastwood

11.30 am (Korean)- 114 Lovel Rd, Eastwood

6.00 pm- 114 Lovell Rd, Eastwood

“1 Corinthians has much to say to the modern world. No book in the New Testament, even Paul‘s letter to the Romans, does more to explain the grace of God, the lordship of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. The contribution of the letter to the practical knowledge of God is immense. Not only is its ethics searching and rigorous, its theology,especially of the cross, announces the end of the world as we know it. As well as supplying concrete answers to many problems which have comparable manifestations today, on subjects as diverse as leadership, preaching, pluralism, sexuality and worship, 1 Corinthians models how to approach the complexity of Christian living with the resources of the Old Testament and the example and teaching of Jesus.” Brian Rosner

Join us we explore this book together over 10 weeks starting July 25. 8am, 9.30, 11.30 (Korean) 6pm services.

Gospel in Life is an intensive eight-session course on the gospel and how it is lived out in all of life—first in our hearts, then in community, and out into the world. As a church were are doing these sessions starting in the week of July 25. Are you interested in joining a small group which does this eight week course? Email Watch the introduction here.

Trailer for Gospel in Life from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

Come and join us this Saturday :

Three main tasks:

1. Demolish old toilets
2. Gardening
3. Moving Church Office

Please bring appropriate tools.

Brian Rosner was brought up in Sydney, but has spent sixteen years studying and working in America (ThM), England (PhD), Scotland (lecturer at the University of Aberdeen) and Germany (researcher) before returning to Australia in 2000. Formerly on Student Life staff, a public servant, an assistant minister and a school teacher. Brian lectures in New Testament and Ethics at Moore College. Later this year his co-authored commentary on 1 Corinthians will be published (Pillar series). He writes about five things he has learned about 1 Corinthians 1-4.

1. They are a good read.  As history, they tell the compelling story of a church gone wild, riven with factions, envy and arrogant boasting.  As literature, they have plenty to keep you reading and then re-reading, including impassioned appeals, elaborate metaphors, surprising rhetorical twists, biting sarcasm and puzzling explanations of the most profound mysteries.  As theology, they teach us much about the grace of God, the death of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.  What more do you want?

2. There was no Christ party.  1 Corinthians 1:12 is often thought to indicate that there were four parties in the church in Corinth, with factions gathered around Paul, Apollos, Cephas and Christ.  I am convinced that no onewas saying, ‘I belong to Christ,’ and that was the problem.  Belonging to Christ is Paul’s solution to inappropriate allegiances to church leaders, as the end of chapter 3 indicates.

3. One of the big problems with preferring one minister over another is that it impoverishes us all.  We don’t belong to our leaders.  In fact, they belong to us, and we all belong to God.

4. Paul’s use of the OT is key to the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 1-4.  There are six quotations from the OT in chapters 1-3 and all four chapters are littered with OT allusions and echoes.  When you notice these it’s like watching television in colour rather than black and white.  A deeper and richer picture takes shape.

5. The cross means the end of the world as we know it.  Its not just the way we get saved, but also the way we are supposed to live.  In the death of Jesus the weakness of God overpowers the world’s strength and the foolishness of God outsmarts the world’s wisdom.  This has implications for all of life.

Brian Rosner

I lived for six years in a rural area in Indonesia with a strong local culture, teaching at a theological college. Since then I’ve been working on a Ph.D. to understand how to interpret the Bible in different cultures, focussing on Hebrews 8-10 in that particular culture. My first two points are things I’ve learnt from the process of studying, while the next three are some of the things I’ve learnt in my studies.

1) Writing is hard work. Be thankful for writers that have helped you know God better–their labour was hard and costly.

2) I don’t really understand what I’m thinking until I write it down or talk to someone about it. It turns out I’m not quite the self-sufficient individual I though I was. Most of my ideas come from other people, and even the ideas I’m trying to think up myself don’t really take shape until I share them!

3) Cultures are different, yet we are all human. We do similar things, like earn a living, or reject God, but in very different ways. This includes responding to the gospel. By definition, responding to the gospel means confessing Jesus as Lord, but what discipleship looks like for a villager from another religious background in Indonesia struggling with poverty or persecution and a middle-class Sydney-sider struggling with affluence will be very different.

4) One thing we all do is try to make sense of the world. We do so in a way that combines head and heart, such that our fundamental beliefs about the world and the way we are in the world–the way we feel and act–mutually reinforce each other. That’s why an unloving culture in a church damages not just feelings and relationships but people’s faith; the gospel of love seems unreal when those who espouse it seem to hate each other. For those living in fear of spirits, the gospel will also seem unreal if Christ’s victory over all forces of evil is not made clear–missionaries have been known to dismiss such fears as superstition, rather than preaching Christ’s power over them. For others, emphasising that Jesus’ resurrection is a fact may have less impact than explaining how in the resurrection God gives the ignominiously crucified Jesus the highest honour–the latter being as challenging for someone in an honour-shame culture to accept as the former is for a modern skeptic. The gospel is true, and glorious, and powerful. It has the resources to connect with and enrich and challenge all kinds of cultures–provided we don’t get in the way and require people to see the gospel from our point of view, as if our way of making sense of the world is the only way that makes sense.

5) In conclusion, the Bible is rich. People from different cultures will draw different implications from the Bible, not because they are confused, even less because the Bible is confused, but rather because the Bible contains more than any one culture can grasp.

Thanks

Andrew Buchanan

Come and dig deeper into 1 Corinthians 1-4 with Dr Brian Rosner.

Brian Rosner was brought up in Sydney, but has spent sixteen years studying and working in America (ThM), England (PhD), Scotland (lecturer at the University of Aberdeen) and Germany (researcher) before returning to Australia in 2000.
Formerly on Student Life staff, a public servant, an assistant minister and a school teacher. Brian lectures in New Testament and Ethics at Moore College. Later this year his co-authored commentary on 1 Corinthians will be published (Pillar series). He enjoys tennis, golf, bushwalking, movies and writing about how the grace of God teaches us to live. Brian is married to Nat and he has four children.

Date: Saturday July 3, 2010.
Time: 2-4pm
Location: Macquarie Anglican-114 Lovell Rd, Eastwood.
Please inform us of your attendance by emailing

Archbishop Peter Jensen

We asked the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen to list five things that he had come to understand about the Holy Spirit, this is what he said:

I have been asked to write on this subject and I really like the heading I have been given. It reminds us that in the things of God we usually ‘come to understand’, we grow in     our knowledge. And that has certainly been my experience of understanding the Spirit. Furthermore, I am certain that there is still much more growing to do!

Now what would I say are my ‘five things’?

1. The Holy Spirit is a great go-between. I know that I have the Holy Spirit in my life because I call Jesus my Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3) and God my Father (Galatians 4:6). He glorifies the Father and the Son by relating me properly to them. I don’t have to look for lesser ‘miracles’ as a sign of his presence. The great miracle of my relationship with God is his work and the evidence of his daily fellowship.

2.The Holy Spirit is a great persuader. He gives us assurance of salvation. He takes the word of God, especially the word of the cross, and persuades me that in spite of my sin, the Lord had died for me and there is forgiveness (Romans 5:1-10).

3. The Holy Spirit is a great leader. He has inspired the Scriptures and he opens my heart to what God is saying to me in the Bible. As I hear what God says and obey it, I am being led by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-13).

4. The Holy Spirit is a great sanctifier. He convicts me of sin, empowers me in my daily struggle against it, and gives me the fruit of his presence in my life. This is called ‘walking by the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:16-26).

5. The Holy Spirit is a great unifier. He unites us to Christ and so to all who belong to Jesus. He enables us to serve the Lord in his strength and through his gifts. He is the Spirit of wisdom and of power. The love he works in us is set to work in serving others, especially my brothers and sisters in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 12).

6. The Holy Spirit is a great intercessor. (I know I was only asked for five things, but I keep thinking of extra ones). When we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit is praying for us the sort of prayer that will please God. He is a great Advocate! (Romans 8:26-27).

One last caution: there is a human tendency to confuse the Holy Spirit with the human spirit. You are not a Christian unless you have first hand experience of the Holy Spirit. But the fundamental experience of the Spirit is our capacity to call Jesus Lord and God our Father. When we start trying to listen in the depths of our hearts for his voice, we are in danger of confusing our own sinful desires with the leading of the Lord. We may look super-spiritual but in fact be disobedient.

The Most Rev Peter Jensen, is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales. You can visit his page here.

In brief

• NSW Government trialling ‘Ethics’ classes in primary schools in competition with Scripture classes.
• Because they are being pitched to all parents, not just conscientious objectors, this could lead to the demise of Scripture in schools.
• Ethics classes should be rescheduled so they are available to all students, regardless of religion, leaving the Scripture classes in place.

Background
For over a hundred years, the NSW Government has recognised the important role religious instruction plays in a child’s education.
Religious instruction – provided by volunteers from all faiths – is an integral part of the NSW education system.
It has always been government policy that schools are not to schedule other classes or events that will compete with school scripture for a child’s attention.
In Term 2 – 2010, the Government is trialling a new ‘ethics’ syllabus to be run at the same time as school scripture. The government is hoping to roll out the syllabus state-wide next year.
Despite assurances made by the NSW Government, these classes have been advertised to students already enrolled in school scripture - click here.
Parents will now have to choose between sending their children to school scripture or to ethics classes.
It will not be possible for a child to attend both.
We are calling on the Government to reschedule the new ethics syllabus and make it available to all students, regardless of their faith.
Children shouldn’t be forced to miss out on such an important part of their education because of their religion.

Why does it matter?
Parents and their children should not be forced to choose between ethics classes and school scripture.
The more programmes the Government offers at the same time as school scripture, the fewer students who will be enrolled in scripture classes.
It also means that parents who would like to send their children to both school scripture and ethics classes will not be able to.

Take action now
We need your voice! We need local church members, pastors, scripture teachers and students to speak up and let their local MP know that school scripture matters.

Visit the Make a Stand website for details of the various ways you can make your voice heard…

See Also: Archbishop Peter Jensen: Ten reasons the ethics trial is not a good idea

The aim of these gatherings is to spend time in prayer for the issues that need to be addressed and to consider prayerfully the way forward.

Who: Everyone

Thursday April 29- 8pm,  100 Balaclava Rd , Eastwood

Monday May 31 – 8pm, 100  Balaclava Rd, Eastwood

Wednesday June 23 -8pm, 114 Lovell Rd, Eastwood

Monday July 26 ^– 8pm  114 Lovell Rd, Eastwood